How Fast Food Impacts The Body

Most of us are all familiar with the term ‘Eat Healthy to Live Healthy’, unfortunately, we rarely pay attention to it and don’t feel too guilty when we grab a zinger burger / pizza or take a sip of coke while driving to or from work. Our lives are so busy these days that many of us don’t pay as much attention as we should to the quality of food we consume on a daily basis. According to the latest research, average families spend more than half of their food budget on ‘fast food’ sometimes also classified as ‘Junk food’. Fast food is any type of food which is highly processed; contain large amounts of added sugar, carbohydrates, sodium, preservatives, and unhealthy fats. Fast food is often rich in calories and very poor in nutritional value. While an occasional night out at a fast-food restaurant is not bad, a habit of eating burgers, pizzas, french fries, energy bars, pasta, bagels, soda, frozen entrees and deli meats can have both short-term as well as long-term adverse effects on your body. Read on to learn how fast food impacts the body.

How Fast Food Impacts the Body

The majority of fast food offered to the public is cheap, tasty, attractive, convenient and socially acceptable in most cultures. Many global food chains spend millions of dollars on marketing their products and offering different kinds of value meals. As an end-user, it is your responsibility to make healthy choices in your life and try to avoid junk food as much as possible. Here are 5 ways fast food can impact your body in a relatively short amount of time:

It Can Make You Obese – fast food is extremely rich in calories, frequent use can lead to unintentional weight gain.

It Can Expose You To Cardiovascular Diseases – fast food contains fat that is made up of saturated fatty acids, these fats can raise your blood cholesterol levels. In addition to that sodium found in fast foods is a risk factor for various cardiovascular diseases such as high blood pressure and stroke.

It Can Cause Frequent Insulin Spikes – fast food contains loads of carbohydrates and sugar, this increases the body’s demand to produce more insulin, resulting in rapid insulin spikes. This can also lead to insulin resistance and type-2 diabetes.

It Can Increase Your Risk of Developing Cancer – fast food contains preservatives such as sodium nitrite and sodium nitrate, these preservatives are used to maintain meat colour and hamper bacterial growth. Sodium nitrate and Sodium nitrite can breakdown into nitrosamines – which can cause cancer.